Brussels, 03/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of the visit to that the European Union Troika is to make to Algeria on Wednesday, the Director of Amnesty International Office in Brussels, Dick Oosting, addressed an open letter to the High Representative for the common foreign and security policy, Javier Solana, Commissioner Chris Patten, as well as Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Piqué, Council President, and Denmark's Per Stuig Moler. "The secrecy in which EU dialogues with other countries are conducted is a matter of concern to many citizens in Europe, but even more so to the countries in question such as Algeria where serious human rights violations including killings, torture and secret detention continues to occur", writes Mr. Oosting, demanding a more transparent political dialogue.
It being precisely the question of Algeria, Amnesty International considers that "the fact that the human rights crisis in Algeria shows no sign of being resolved is spite of the recent signing of an Association Agreement suggests that the EU's secret efforts have failed to impress change on the Algerian authorities". The non-governmental organisation calls on the EU Troika to raise five questions with its Algerian interlocutors and, on its return, make a public statement on the results secured to these five points: (1) are members of the armed forces prosecuted for acts that have led to the death of demonstrators (Amnesty recalls that some 100 unarmed civilians have been killed since April 2001)? (2) what measures have been taken to guarantee impartial investigations on the violence that has led to the death of some 200 people a month? (3) are any investigations conducted into cases of disappearances? (4) do the Algerian authorities envisage putting an end of measures of intimidation of defenders of human rights? (5) are they prepared to authorise access to representatives of the United Nations and NGOs into their country?